INCOME TAX ACT 1967 (ACT 53) PART IX - EXEMPTIONS, REMISSION AND OTHER RELIEF
Section 128. Exemption from tax: residential premises and premises where, owing to circumstances, owner is compelled to vacate.
(1) Subject to this section, where an individual who is the owner of a residence occupies the residence as owner throughout the basis period for a year of assessment (that period and that year being referred to in this section as the relevant period and the relevant year respectively) or during any part of the relevant period, his gross income from the occupation for the relevant period or for that part of the relevant period, as the case may be, shall be disregarded for the purposes of this Act.
[Subs. Act 328: s.14]
(2) Where subsection 45(2) applies for the relevant year with respect to an individual being the husband or the wife in whose name the assessment was made, then, for the purposes of this section-
(a) that husband or that wife shall be deemed to be the owner of any residence of which the wife who elects or the husband who elects, as the case may be, is the owner; and
(b) any occupation in the relevant period by the wife who elects or the husband who elects, of any residence of which the husband or the wife, as the case may be, is the owner or is deemed to be the owner under paragraph (a) shall be deemed to be occupation by the husband or the wife in whose name the assessment was made.
[Subs. Act 608: s.20]
(3) An individual shall not be entitled to the benefit of this section in relation to the relevant year unless he makes a claim in that behalf in the prescribed form to the Director General at the time when he makes his return of income for the relevant year to the Director General.
(4) No individual may make a claim for the relevant year under subsection (3) in respect of the occupation of more than one residence in the relevant period.
(5) No relief shall be given under section 131 on account of any error or mistake in a claim under subsection (3).
(6) In this section-
"occupy" has the same meaning as in section 11;
"owner", in relation to a residence, means a person registered under the law relating to registration of title to land-
(a) as the proprietor of the land on which the residence stands or as the holder of a lease of that land having an unexpired term of ten years or more; or
(b) where the residence consists of part of a building, as the proprietor of that part or as the holder of such a lease of that part;
"residence" means premises used for residential purposes.
